Solaris Islands
by Himizu
Summary: Jinchuuriki, Prophecies and all around chaos. What's to happen when a team of three nins from a far off land visit Konoha? [Possable NaruHina, Multiple OCs, NOT A MARYSUE FIC!]
1. Chapter 1: Alaida

Lizy here! I'm now proud to present a collaboration with a friend of mine, Imi (who is an awesome writer). Yes, you heard right, The Solaris Islands have hit Woo! And now for the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: Lizy and Imi do not own Naruto, we never have owned Naruto and we never will own Naruto….unfortunately. Because if we did, Itachi would be female, Gaara would be in love with Lizy and Naruto would have finally noticed Hinata's feelings for him. But alas, we do not, so don't sue!

STORY NO JUTSU! (I give all credit for this line to the people who made it up!)

**Solaris Islands**

Chapter 1

_Alaida_

Trudge. Trudge. Trudge.

Their slow paced and laborious walk was making her buzz with adrenaline and excitement and made her restless to get to their destination.

The Hidden Leaf Village.

Trudge. Trudge. Trudge.

It was almost unbearable to carry on at such a slow, tired walk when they were _so _close to the home of some of the greatest ninja's in the world!

Trudge. Trudge. Trudge.

Though she understood that it had been a long and weary journey, she couldn't understand why they weren't itching, like her, to just get in those gates, sample the food and question all the different ninjas about techniques, sample some more food, explore, eat some more and _then_ have a rest!

Trudge. Trudge. Snap.

A twig broke beneath her foot and made her companions jump.

_Why were they so on edge? _

Alaida sighed and turned her back to the road to face her friends.

"Can we speed up a bit? I'm _dying _to get there! And you're just…slow!" Alaida whined pathetically to the two who seemed to be either contemplate various hideous ways to shut her up or how to ignore her. Alaida's startlingly green eyes brightened with glee. "Or..." Alaida thought, pausing for effect. "I could run on ahead and announce that you're coming!"

The dark haired boy with them looked as though he was about to protest, but before he could give her some useless piece of logic as to why she shouldn't, she said her thanks and sped off at a sprint down the long road to the gates of the village, her short brunet hair whipping behind her, flowing with her long tartan scarf.

The orange haired girl sighed and pulled out a piece of paper, rolling her grey-blue eyes in Alaida's general direction.

"She needs the document saying that we're invited, right?" The boy sighed shaking his head, his dark grey eyes closed, as though he was suffering a headache. The girl grinned and folded the official document back into her pocket,

"Yeh, but unfortunately we're conserving Chakra, so it might be a while until we can get her out of those ninja guard's clutches!"

"That's if they can catch her."

"Point taken." he said smiling. He suddenly turned around as he heard a disturbance in the bushes, drawing a kunai as he did. A rabbit hopped out. He stood up and sighed, "just a stupid rabbit."

"I like rabbits, thanks very much." his friend replied, sounding hurt, but grinning all the same. "Geez Takumi, you're so tense- Ohmigosh I can see it!" she squealed as they rounded the corner, turning to see the gates of the Village of the hidden leaf. She was so exited she started to rise into the air in glee, literally! Takumi hastily pulled her back down to normal level hissing at her.

"Naida, will you kindly keep your feet placed somewhere near the ground?!" he whispered cautiously to her as she struggled away from his grip, dusting herself off and grinning.

"Oh come on now! Lighten up! I know we're supposed to be ambassadors representing our country, but you've got to have a bit more fun with it! This place can't be all that different from home can it?" she said playfully as she faked walking all the way to the gates, holding up the permission scroll and explaining that the girl who ran by earlier was with them. Suddenly both travellers were alerted to trouble by what seemed like a very loud argument. Naida ran... err... glided off at incredible speed to the source of this disturbance, only to find her best friend Alaida arguing with... her scarf?

"I _told _you! Takumi has all our money we have to _wait _for them!" Alaida explained for about the fifth time, sighing as she attempted to carry on down the road. However, her scarf tugged tightly round her neck, pulling her to a stop, still outside the ramen shop.

"Can't we wait for them in _here_?" Pleaded the scarf, waving temptingly towards the shop. Alaida's mouth watered.

For days they'd only eaten specially made bread and other supplements that were just enough to keep their strength up – a far cry from the juicy fruits and plants that had covered her home island from tip to toe. Though she had never eaten this _ramen _she needed something that at least had a bit of tang to it.

Sighing, she relented to the scarf's pleas, and walked over to the ramen shop, to find that there was already someone sitting there, just ordering a dish of ramen.

The scarf, excited by the sudden powerful waft of meaty smells and unknown new vegetables pulled Alaida onto the stool, almost making her fly straight over the bar, much to her embarrassment.

_So much for not drawing unnecessary attention! _Alaida thought irritably.

Adjusting her position on her stool she smiled at the boy next to her, who was looking at her oddly. Alaida, horrified, pulled her scarf down by her sides, as she noticed it floating around in random directions, making sniffing noises.

"Eheheh… Hi! My names Alaida!" Alaida grinned awkwardly in her embarrassment, and then noticed this boy was a ninja. Interested, she studied him with her eyes, though she could sense a lot of Chakra, she wasn't sure this boy was a very high rank, considering the way he carried himself. Blue eyes blinked at her curiously and his blond hair stuck up in a way that reminded her of a freind of hers from home.

Alaida was tempted to use her special jutsu, but thought better of it, sensing it would either scare, or aggravate him.

"Urm, hi? I'm Naruto! Where are you from, you sure are wearing weird clothes!"

Alaida flinched at his forwardness, since all the people she'd met on this continent seemed to keep their distance and disapprove of her and her friends from afar.

"I'm from the Solaris islands… its quite far away from your Fire Country!" She added looking at his bewildered expression. "Anyway," She changed the subject, worrying that she may give too much information away. "What is… _ramen?__"_

Naruto looked at her like she had just asked what air was. "... Th... they don't have ramen in your country?" he asked incredulously. Alaida shook her head, confused as to why this was such a big deal. Naruto looked like he had just choked on something. Then he quite suddenly shouted. "How do you **_live_**?!" Alaida was almost thrown off her stool by the sheer volume of these words. What actually knocked her off her stool was the two people who had come flying into the shop at high speed to see what the noise was about. Instantly recognising them, Alaida stood up and grinned apologetically. Takumi had his hands on his hips and an expression of pure annoyance and Naida was sniffing the air suspiciously.

"I thought I told you last night to keep a low profile?" There was a vein clearly twitching in his forehead as he slowly and carefully chose his words. There was a small whooshing sound as they flew straight over Alaida's head.

"Hi guys! This is Naruto! And I just found out that Ramen is a very important part of this country!" she said gleefully as she jumped off the floor. Naruto watched in confusion as the boy immediately took out his notebook and started furiously jotting notes down.

"Uh, don't tell me you guys have never eaten ramen before..." he said slowly. The two girls shook their heads and Naruto grinned. "Then I'll be happy to buy you your first bowl. Hey boss! 4 bowls of ramen!"

"Mou, Naruto, you've had like, 5 bowls already!" came a voice from the back of the shop.

"It's for these three! It's their first ramen ever!" And at this a surprisingly healthy looking man burst from the back of the shop grinning wildly.

"First ramen eh? Then this one's on the house!" he cried. Takumi lent over to Alaida.

"Is this ramen thing really that important?" he asked suspiciously. Naida overheard and whispered back.

"It might be like the tea ceremony back home!" she said excitedly. Alaida grinned.

"Well whatever it is it sure smells a lot better than that funky bread we've been eating! I say idatekimasu!" she declared as three bowls of steamy stuff were slid out from the kitchen. All three sat down and Takumi frowned.

"Uh... how do we eat it?" he asked confusedly. Naruto picked up two sticks that seemed lightly stuck together and gently pulled them apart in an example, then proceeded to show them how to hold them. It took a while but quite soon they were all ready. The call of "Idatekimasu!" went up as they all dug in, Takumi last off the mark, Naruto and Alaida first.

Takumi, attempting to be more civilised, drew attention away Alaida's unsocial munching and questioned Naruto about Konoha.

"So, I heard you have levels on this continent for different types of Ninja, am I correct?" Takumi sighed as he noticed Alaida's scarf hovering sadly around Alaida's near empty bowl.

_That scarf… _Takumi thought angrily.

"Urm, yeh! There's Genin, Chuunin and Jounin!" Naruto grinned and Takumi noted that he seemed rather pleased with himself for giving useful information to the new comers.

_Not another Alaida._

Naruto, distracted briefly from his meal went on to explain that he had been training with a legendary _"__Sannin__"_by the name of Jiraiya and so was still a Genin, and although Takumi and Naida had no idea who this _Jiraiya _was, they listened politely. That is, until, Naida nudged Takumi hard in the ribs.

"What?" Hissed Takumi, but he didn't need an answer. Naruto's ramen, although he'd barely touched it, had vanished, and the culprit was now covered with chunks of meat and noodles which it kept picking up with small strands of its being and eating them too.

Naruto, turning to his bowl turned white, and his head slowly turned to the relaxing Alaida.

"WHERE'S MY RAMEN!?!?" Naruto yelled in Alaida's stunned face. Alaida glanced at the scarf hiding just behind her shoulder.

"I swear it wasn't me!" Defended Alaida, but to no avail and Naruto just grabbed her by the scarf and tugged her outside.

"You're going to _pay _for eating my RAMEN!" Takumi noticed Alaida's scarf trembling, though probably not from Naruto's outburst, but from Alaida cracking her knuckles.

"We better go and save them both…" Takumi sighed, getting up and throwing some money down on the counter.

"Who? Alaida and Scarf? Or Naruto and Scarf?" Smiled Naida, also leaving the Ramen bar to aid her friend.

Meanwhile outside, several kunai were being thrown and bouncing off each other due to the perfect aims of both users. Naruto was nearing a state of madness he was so upset, and he didn't seem to notice that Alaida's scarf was moving on it's own. Alaida seemed to be enjoying the pleasure of having what she supposed to be a spar with a real Konoha ninja. Unfortunately it wasn't all she'd expected it to be.

"You're serious? That's _it_? You're pathetic you know, come on! show me some jutsus or something!" she taunted, easily dodging some shuriken that came her way. Cart wheeling to the side, kunai inexplicably shot out from under her scarf, pinning Naruto's arm to a nearby wall. Tugging against it, but to no avail, Naruto seemed to get even more pissed off. Ripping his arm away from the wall, leaving several pieces of his clothes pinned there by kunai, he summoned his most well known jutsu.

"WHY YOU LITTLE - KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" he yelled at her. People seemed not to care as about 50 other Naruto's descended from nowhere.

_This kind of thing must be normal in a town full of ninjas._ Thought Naida with a sigh. _And it can only get more frequent with these two._

Several waves of Naruto bushins were charging at Alaida, all yelling something about ramen, Takumi was tapping his foot on the floor impatiently and Naida was licking some ramen sauce off her fingertips, waiting for a possible intervention.

"Bunshins? You're kidding right?" Alaida chuckled. She took a deep breath in and closed her eyes. Chakra swelled up to her eyes and as she opened them her pupils had vanished leaving behind pure mint green. "Rokuagan!" she whispered. She could see that each of the clones had working chakra systems, which she did not expect as they were bunshin, perhaps bunshin were more advanced here, but she could also see though it and find the one that was fully human. Where was he...? Suddenly several ninjas jumped and prepared a flying punch. "LEFT!" She realised, sending kunai off in every direction, her scarf aiming seemingly deadly blows to all the kage bunshin, clearing the path for Alaida to use her ultimate defence. To knee Naruto in the part where it hurts a man most.

Takumi outwardly flinched from this manoeuvre, the memories of the experience being used on him at one point. Naida decided to stop the fight here, gliding swiftly between Alaida and a quivering Naruto. "And zee winners are; Alaida and The Scarf!" she held up Alaida's arm and the tail end of the scarf in a mock wrestling victory pose. Takumi made his way over to Naruto, trying to help him regain some of his hopelessly lost dignity.

"Ouch. You ok?" he questioned calmly, watching Alaida and the scarf take their bows.

"I swear that scarf talks." Takumi heard Naruto mutter and he paled slightly.

"Uh, what? You sound like a raving loony Naruto!" he proceeded the laugh in a rather out of character way. Then he backed his way over to Naida and Alaida, instantly grabbing them both on his way, pulling them into an ally. "Alaida-baka! He's figured out Scarf!" Alaida instantly pointed at her loosely hanging scarf.

"It was his fault!" she complained like a child. The Scarf end raised it's head up, the stitching forming almost a face.

"Well excuuuuuuuse me! I've gotta eat too you know!" it moaned right back. Alaida then proceeded to tie the place where it's face was into a knot. "HEY! Is that any way to treat the demon who has kept you safe for during your pitiful LIFE?!" came a muffled yell, which was swiftly ignored by the three.

"Anyway, will you keep that bloody thing under control?" Takumi said irritably. Alaida looked down at her symbiotic demon, who was struggling to untie himself. She sweat dropped and wondered why on earth it was _her_ bad luck to be the first born in her family. Her bad luck to get stuck with a bloody demon scarf of all things. She sighed.

"You know I try Takumi-san." she sighed. "It's the whole symbiosis thing. He's just so... irritating!" At this the scarf scoffed, having considerably untied himself.

"_I'm_ irritating?! I've been around longer than they probably teach you in history class! Your lack of knowledge is enough to drive me crazy! Don't they teach you anything _good_ these days?!" he argued, rising up angrily. Alaida stared him down.

"You know what? Shut up!" she shouted back at it.

"Why don't you MAKE ME!" he retorted.

"Well BRING IT ON!"

"YOU'RE SO GOING DOWN!"

Naida and Takumi sighed in unison as the two attempted to strangle each other, neither gaining the upper hand. Eventually Naida whacked them both round the head and made them look directly at her.

"I'm going to say this once. Be quiet." she spoke quietly. There was a hint of warning in her voice. Anyone else would have shut up at that moment. But of course, then this story would not be nearly so interesting would it?

"But he-" started Alaida childish excuses forming on her lips.

"Alaida, you're my best friend, and I'm as excited about being here as you are. But if you don't close your gob, you'll reveal some valuable secrets." she said kindly to her, but still in a kind of scolding tone. The scarf looked smug, if an item of clothing can display that kind of emotion at all.

"Ha, you have been beaten by the demon again- eep!" he cowered as Naida put her face very close to his. Her expression was not a kind one at all.

"And as for you, you are a pathetic excuse for a demon. So don't you go announcing you're all high and mighty." she growled in that some voice she had used earlier, one that seemed to sound like two people speaking in unison from the same source. Suddenly there was a silent crack from above them and all for looked up. They were then landed upon by a very heavy object. Takumi pushed said object off him and the rest of the group, only to find it was Naruto. He picked him up by the collar and glared at him.

"Were you just eaves dropping on us?" he growled low. Naruto was brushing himself off as he hung there and glared straight back at Takumi in reply. Then he resumed staring at a very agitated Alaida who was on the floor and that scarf who was trying it's best to look like an innocent... well... scarf. He then noticed that Naida wasn't getting up. This was odd because he had mainly landed on Takumi, which was probably why he was the angriest. Takumi followed his gaze to his red headed friend and immediately dropped him, dashing over to her. Alaida soon noticed this too and ran over to help Takumi. The first thing they did was lift her off the floor. Naruto thought their behaviour very strange.

"Why are you picking her up so soon?" he asked. The two jumped, having almost forgotten Naruto was there. Takumi recovered himself and glared at him.

"Because she's not supposed to touch the ground." he growled angrily at him. "You wouldn't understand. You're far too stupid." At this Naruto managed to get away from Takumi's grasp. He stared angrily at him and confusedly at the young girl.

"I just wanted to know..." he said huffily, before making his way out of the ally by means of jumping. He sat on one of the roofs and thought. This was tough for him, seeing as it was not his forte. "Geez... I wonder what's up with them..." he huffed as he watched them jump out of the alleyway and head the opposite direction from him, towards the hokage tower. Naruto blinked. What did these people have to do with Granny Tsunade?

End chapter!

Lizy: Woo! Review please! They feed our souls! Our soooooooooooooouls!

Imi: If our souls are not fed, we shall have to steal yours 3 so review or die!

Lizy and Imi: Byeeee!


	2. Chapter 2: Naida

Hey there, ho there, hi there! Second chapter is up! That didn't take long, ne? And now here's Alaida with the disclaimer!

Alaida: Imi and Lizy don't own Naruto. If you try to sue them I'll set Scarf-y on you!

Scarf-y: Pfft! Like I'd waste my time like that on pitiful humans…

Alaida: beats with the cunai Silly scarf.

Naida: appears from nowhere and flies into rapid handseals STORY NO JUTSU!

* * *

**Solaris Islands**

Chapter 2

_Naida_

Naida was slowly regaining consciousness, noticing the building blur beneath her she felt her stomach lurch. Her head became light and she faded back into unconsciousness once more.

Her sleep was plagued with nightmares that threw up gruesome image after image. No matter what she did her mind foreboding continued to flow, unquenched. Her screams were unheard. Her tears, unseen.

Mostly, her heart ached for her family. Well, what she could call her family. Alaida, Takumi, Hatako and Rai were all she had and without them, even in sleep, that loneliness would stab at her heart.

They were raised together on those islands, since she was about 10, Alaida was the oldest and still the most immature, while Takumi was the youngest and the most mature. Hatako was just a bit older than Naida, while Rai was older than Hatako, but younger by a few months than Alaida.

But you'd never have known it.

The only soothing to her pain, was oddly enough, from a voice within. A voice, that had been with her since before she could remember. A soft but strong feminine voice that often barked orders, but cared for her "chick" as she put it.

Even now she soothed, **Don't worry chick. Its not real, these are just fears not predictions or fact. **Slowly, but surely, the images melted away along with her pain to leave, calmness. Naida now dreamed of her islands, her friends, their usual hangout and when they all used to pick the Manha fruit from the huge trees near Alaida's home… every summer.

Takumi lay Naida carefully into a soft chair in the corner of the office, hoping she'd wake up soon, in case he lost his temper with Alaida.

She was the peacekeeper amongst the three, in fact among the five group of friends.

Takumi, Naida, Hatako, Rai and Alaida.

Hatako and Rai remained on the island, unwillingly it must be said, to retain peace.

_Even though nothing EVER happens, _he thought bitterly.

The Hokage, leader of the hidden village of Konoha sat before the young ninjas. Her face tinged with curiosity. Takumi marvelled at her youth and beauty, and wondered at her capabilities when she suddenly looked up from the letter.

"Takumi…" She savoured the name and stared at him. "You are a ninja, correct?" Takumi shifted slightly in his seat.

"Well, we have a different approach to ninja's than-"

"Of course," she interrupted smartly. She opened a tiny file with a few sheets of paper slotted within. "This is all the information we have on Solaris." She smiled, spreading the four sheets out in front of him. Three of the four had pictures of the trio and he smirked as Alaida moaned at her own surveillance photo. She had obviously been pulling a face at either Scarf, Takumi or Naida and she been caught mid… whatever she was doing. Takumi's wasn't much better; he was just sulky looking, while Naida had a faint smile of amusement on her face.

The information was pitiful, only noting that one seemed to have considerable taijutsu capabilities and talked to a seemingly animated scarf, while the others had not revealed their strengths in public. Any information on Solaris was to do with recent trade agreements and the lack of visitors to the islands, it also noted its seclusion from the rest of the world.

He looked up frowning.

"Wha-" He began but was interrupted.

"This letter…" The Hokage began, pausing briefly as she stood up to look out the window. "Was sent by our former leader, the third. Over five months ago." She turned her gaze to the small children before her. "Why did you not come sooner?" Her tone was harsh and Takumi felt Alaida tense beside him.

"Well, our home is a considerable distance from Konoha…" Takumi answered strongly, although Alaida noticed he had begun fiddling with his top.

"It should have only taken, by foot, three months to journey from Solaris to Konoha… what did you do with those two remaining months?" The Hokage's eyes were as sharp as her voice, and it unnerved Takumi, who knew full well what happened two months ago.

The Invasion of Konoha.

Why weren't they there? Simple. They'd spent time in different countries, building relationships but also noting the strength of each country. Not only that… but Naida had felt uneasy, and Alaida had known that someone was going to invade Konoha. As leader, he took the decision not to aid Konoha at that time. It was a hard decision and all three felt that it was too dangerous to reveal themselves and endanger their home just yet.

They'd kept an eye on Konoha but there were far greater dangers than those at Konoha that they feared. One, being the Demon Hunters they had encountered once or twice along their travels. They were terrible. Each battle had been horrendous, and they'd barely escaped each time.

These were unlike any Demon Hunters he had ever known.

"We have our reasons," Alaida finally answered, knowing that there would be no better explanation. She felt Scarf-y squeeze reassuringly round her neck, and although an unusually sympathetic gesture, she suddenly had a coughing fit that took several minutes to overcome.

Takumi sighed. _Definitely not strong enough yet, _he thought wearily.

The Hokage leant back in her chair and closed her eyes, then she swiftly opened her eyes.

"I want you to meet our ninjas here." She announced, which enticed a grin out of Alaida and a frown out of Takumi.

"May we have a guide?" Takumi said, thinking ahead. Alaida was already at the door. The Hokage smiled,

"I think I have just the person!" Her expression suddenly dropped and she suddenly yelled; "NARUTO!" The two jumped, and the young boy slipped from the roof, dangling from the window ledge. All three had the same reaction,

"YOU!"

The hokage looked between the three glaring children, wondering what could have caused such odd behaviour. Clearing her throat, she regained all their attentions, then proceeding to yank Naruto roughly through the window and tossing him across her room. Rolling to a stop, and muttering about "stupid inhumanly strong grannys", Naruto sat up and frowned at the occupants of the room. Two of them glared icily back. The other male's hands were twitching slightly, inching their way over to a pocket that appeared to be full of something. The girl, looking like she longed to get up from her seat, was being held back by her scarf, which had woven it's way round the chair leg.

The hokage blinked.

"Do you know each other?" she asked, slightly confused and with an odd feeling that the icy atmosphere was mostly down to-

"That kid sat on my friend and knocked her out!" cried the girl, Alaida, according to the file, jumping up, causing the chair to fall over due to her scarf still being wrapped around it.

_Naruto._

The hokage sighed. The other blond stood up to glare at the girl. You could practically see the sparks fly between them.

"That was a complete accident! Don't blame this on me!" Naruto yelled back at her indignantly. There was a vein twitching visibly in both the Hokage's and the darker boy's forehead.

"You were eavesdropping on us. That is hardly polite and indeed, all your fault." the boy said icily, fingers twitching ever closer to that pocket. The blond turned on the boy.

"You wanna take this outside buddy?!" Naruto started, before leaning back and smirking. "Oh no, wait, that wouldn't be fair."

The darker boy nodded, surprising Naruto and the other occupants of the room. "You're right." he said, before smirking. "It would be totally unfair to you. It have kicked your sorry butt within the time it took for the whistle to stop blowing." Alaida looked smug at this, as did the boy. Naruto was about to reply when the hokage decided it had gone on to far.

"BOTH OF YOU BE QUIET!" she commanded loudly. Naruto shut his mouth and pouted immaturely. "Now Naruto, seeing as by eavesdropping twice on these kind people," Naruto snorted at this. The hokage carried on, ignoring him. "You shall be the one to escort them round the village."

Three sets of jaws dropped.

"WHAT?!" cried Alaida and Naruto in unison, staring at the hokage, appalled.

LATER

Reluctantly leaving a KO'd Naida in the Hokage's hands, Alaida and Takumi set out into the town with a sulky Naruto. Walking randomly through the seemingly endless streets of Konoha, Alaida had to marvel at how big this place was, and still being a hidden village.

It then occurred to her that is couldn't be all that hidden as she had been able to locate it even without the use of her bloodline.

As Alaida puzzled over this, Takumi was taking in strategically important parts of the large village. It was amazingly open to attack, they sky appeared to have no watch birds, nor were there any particularly dangerous looking ninja.

How wrong he was.

Just as Takumi thought this, there was a puff of smoke and an odd popping sound. Instantly alert, Takumi pulled his kunai out of his pocket, where he had been itching to get to earlier, Alaida slid into her fighting stance, Scarf-y hovering slightly. Naruto did nothing, simply stopping and crossing his arms over is chest.

The smoke cleared, revealing a tall man with a mask that covered half his face, his Konoha headband covering the rest save his left eye. His hair was messy and greyish, but he looked quite young. The man had his hand raised in greeting, and from what Takumi could tell, was smiling, as his eye was curved up, something he and Alaida would later dub the "eye-smile".

"Yo!" he said calmly, as if popping out of nowhere in front of complete strangers was the norm. Apparently it was, as Naruto simply grinned and replied "Hey Kakashi-sensei! What's up?" The man, Kakashi, looked ready to reply when he noticed Takumi and Alaida were wearily looking at him, still in defensive postures. Naruto followed his gaze and took note of what was going on behind him. He laughed and turned back to Kakashi. "Ah yeh, Tsunade-baa-chan gave me the important job of showing these guys around Konoha!" he grinned widely, completely forgetting her had never even wanted to do it in the first place. Kakashi's eye widened a fraction, before looking over the new people.

"You don't have to be scared of little old me!" he smiled again, watching as the two's postures relaxed, though only slightly.

Scarf-y frowned, or at least, _creased _in an imitation of such.

'_Laida I don't trust him_, he thought, his mind connecting with hers. Alaida shrugged the comment away but kept watching the figure.

_You're wasting our chakra stupid, _Alaida thought bitterly. Though she never really used chakra, it was nice to have around, in case of a tight situation.

_Listen for once in your pathetic little life! Just look him over! _Scarf-y sighed at her apparently confused expression and outward blushing. _You are so moronic. ROKUGEN! God WHY was I stuck with you of ALL humans, I mean geeze I could've-_

_Ok ok! _Alaida interrupted, irritated by his all too often rant on humans and her incompetence.

Alaida focused, carefully, as to not to attract attention while Naruto, Takumi and Kakashi-sensei talked.

Her pupils began to swirl, the green taking up the majority of her eye - the result of which was a strange spiral of black and green. At this point she was blind. She could see nothing, but could _feel _the strengths of the others around her.

Takumi - she easily felt his genjutsu abilities and techniques ebbing out from him. Naruto - he was short range combat type, using a move that created several _beings _of himself, although they could be destroyed. Kakashi-sensei - now he was difficult, she felt his lightning chakra predominantly, however there was something strange about…

Alaida inadvertently gulped. His left eye was a sharingan eye. An _Uchiha _blood limit. Alaida froze, she remembered a previous encounter that had almost been a disaster for the three with an Uchiha. That blood limit was dangerous.

Takumi, noticing Alaida's unusual quietness suddenly noticed her Rokugan eyes, and wondered what was wrong. Scarf-y was visibly shaking, with anger or fear, he knew not.

"So, urm, Kakashi?" he attempted to continue the conversation. "What are the genjutsu users like around here?" He needed a distraction from Alaida's prying eyes. He silently cursed her for her annoying habits.

Alaida, remembered Naida suddenly, and the trauma of the last battle released her Rokugan and waited. The blindness would not go for another few minutes. So she just waited.

"Well there's Kurenai, and a few trainees and such scattered around. We aren't strong on numbers when it comes to Genjutsu…"

_This guy is pretty strong 'Laida, maybe we should wait… _Scarf-y began. Alaida shrugged him off angrily.

"Do you think it's possible to go and watch you ninja's train?" Takumi asked, keeping the awkward conversation going.

_What if he goes after Naida, huh? We can't trust this one! You told me what happened to them! _At this, Scarf-y visibly flinched.

_Revenge is a terrible thing… _He said almost to himself.

"Sure! Why not we'll give you a tour right, Naruto?"

"Yeh, why not! I'll show you how amazing I am!"

_Scarf-y! My eyesight is returning! _Alaida said, her heartbeat racing. Scarf-y, had he had skin would've begun sweating.

Everyone, save Alaida, visibly sweat-dropped at Naruto's outburst.

'_Laida, wait. We need a plan-_ too late, his words of wisdom came as Alaida struck out with a fist.

This, of course, was a rather stupid thing to do, being surrounded by foreign ninjas and almost completely alone, and Alaida was almost immediately countered, being tossed behind the back of the "enemy". Flipping herself upright, she ignored Scarf-y's mental pleas to stop and think for a minute, and Takumi's verbal pleas to get a grip and started attacking him right there in the street. Kakashi just kept dodging, however, and didn't seem at all worried. In fact, he seemed a little amused. And no matter what Alaida tried to do, she just couldn't hit him! _And the sharingan isn't even out yet!_ she thought, frustrated. Getting annoyed, she threw a punch to his face, giving a squeak of surprise when he grabbed her wrist. Struggling against the grip with her all, she was irritated when the Jounin didn't even budge. He picked her up, her toes skimming the ground and brought her to eye level with him. The single eye he had revealed, seemed to be smiling, but the tone of voice when he spoke suggested he was not all that happy.

"Why did you attack me?" he asked lightly, with a darker undertone that was not hard to miss. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Naruto nodding. Glaring back at him she snarled out:

"You have a cursed eye." Kakashi raised his viable eyebrow. "That red eye. There was another person with two. How are you connected?" she bit out. Kakashi's eye widened. "Are you on his side? Are you going to try to kill us too?" she left out the part concerning Naida, not wanting to alert Naruto of the little secret they shared.

_Scarf-y? _

"Someone with a Sharingan?" Kakashi asked, clearly interested. Naruto was frozen, looking slightly shocked. This meant these kids had run into either Itachi or…_Sasuke._

_Why do I ALWAYS have to get you out of a mess? You're soooo stupid- _Before Scarf-y could begin to rant again Alaida interrupted.

_You know when-_

"Yeh," Takumi sighed, rubbing his arm subconsciously. "We were in a real tight situation there…"

"What was his name?" Naruto said, obviously desperate. He was looking straight into Takumi's face. Takumi flinched. _His eyes are similar to…_

_Of **course **you moronic- well don't worry I can understand his every move… you just wait you stupid little phoenix, I'll show you what true power is… _Scarf-y continued muttering.

_Don't talk about Shi that way! _Alaida protested.

_Want me to help?_

…_yes. _Alaida sulked.

"Well his name was Uchiha-"

_Then just be ready… _Scarf-y said darkly.

At this point there was a strange whirring noise, and as the three turned, a flurry of material whooshed passed Naruto and Takumi towards Kakashi. The stripped material wrapped itself swiftly round the Jounin and tightened. Then something weird happened…

For Naruto and Kakashi that is.

"OH YEH! WHOSE THE GREATEST DEMON!?" Wiggled the scarf. "OH YEH! NOT SHICHIBI OR THE HACHIBI!" It then began humming some victory parade anthem without realizing that it had currently caught hold of a log, and it's intended victim had been easily knocked out, a few moments ago.

"Oh we are in serious shit…" Takumi sweat dropped. "You are such an idiot." Takumi glared at the Scarf who promptly stopped it's victory "wiggle" and stared at Takumi.

"Whhaaaat?" Complained the Scarf. "I mean I just caught a jou…jou… LOG?!?!?!" The Scarf would have jumped out of its material (and gladly) if it could've at the simple trick. "**You…**" The Scarf said darkly. "I shall smite you and your… your…" The scarf suddenly dropped to the ground and shrunk back to normal size around Alaida's neck.

_Chakra exhaustion… _Takumi thought, sighing.

"Shall I come quietly?" He said, realising that this was no normal encounter.

"I think you'd better." Kakashi replied simply. "Demon…?" He began but was interrupted when Takumi placed one hand over his embarrassed face, and waved the other.

"Please…just don't ask, this is torture enough!" Kakashi smiled still carrying a KO'ed Alaida and Scarf.

_Even if it **IS** a demon, I guess its no threat, _thought Kakashi happily.

"So the Solaris islands have a jinchuuriki?" The Hokage asked, surprised. The red headed girl was being very helpful, information wise. It made her wonder why the information was so hard to obtain in the first place. The girl, Naida, she remembered her name was, had woken up not long after her friends had left, looking a bit confused. Tsunade was also a bit concerned as to why the girl seemed unwilling to let her feet touch the ground and was keeping her feet curled firmly under her.

"Yep!" she replied. "Jinchuuriki of the shichibi, youkai no tori." Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"And this jinchuuriki would be…?"

"Well actually it's-" she was cut off by the door opening so suddenly it made her jump. In the doorway stood our favorite blond ninja, along with his sensei and Naida's friends, one of whom was unconscious. Immediately jumping up, (Tsunade noticed a sudden flare of chakra coming from Naida's feet) Naida immediately rushed to her K.O.'d friend's side, snatching her away from the tall ninja who was carrying her. Tsunade noticed her feet didn't move at the right pace, yet she still moved, frowning she watched the scene unfold.

Naida bent over and pressed her hands on her friend's stomach, a green-blue light surrounding her hands. Tsunade's eyes widened a fraction, and Naruto gasped audibly, talking at Kakashi like he hadn't noticed, which of course he had, being the infamous Jounin he was. The girl sat up abruptly and Tsunade's frown creased further. A way to replenish those with chakra exhaustion… that could be useful. She was jolted out of her thoughts when the scarf sat up along with the girl and started talking.  
_The Scarf_ of all things!

Now she wanted answers.

The item of clothing was in the middle of insulting the girl with words along the lines of "Well I didn't see anything unusual seeing as there is usually no brain activity from you anyway…" which must have been in response to the "I was out cold?" question the girl had previously posed. The hokage cleared her throat, sharply reminding the three of the other occupants in the room.

All three froze, even the scarf.

Kakashi spoke first. "Ah, hokage-sama, we just thought you might want to know there is a demon scarf running around your village." he said light-heartedly. Naruto looked from his sensei, to the hokage, to the scarf.

"EEEEEEH?" he cried in shock, pointing at Alaida and scarf. "That thing is a demon!?" He bent down face to "face" with it. "Must be a really midget-y demon to get sealed in a scarf…" he then had to jump back as the scarf took a swipe at him.

"Watch where you're sticking that thing, buddy" it growled. "Oh wait, that was your face? I thought it was your a-" he was cut off from the obviously rude insult as the girl tied it's "face" in a knot.

"Shut up! We've got enough explaining to do already!" she hissed at it.

The boy of the group was massaging his temples, an act Tsunade was feeling tempted to take part in as well.

The red head girl stood, sighing wearily. "I guess I should introduce our little gang properly, seeing as everything has gotten royally screwed up." She pointed to the girl attached to the scarf. "This is Kamera Alaida, our resident demon sealer and taijutsu expert." Several eyebrows raised at this, Naruto's nearly reached his hairline. Turning to her left, she pointed to the brown haired boy, who glared at the finger, muttering about it being rude to point. "This is Takumi, our genjutsu expert." the boy grunted in response. Finally the girl pointed to herself, smiling.

"And I'm Aichouka Naida, Jinchuuriki of the Shichibi and queen of jutsus!"

Silence reigned.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" cried Naruto.

* * *

End chapter.

Lizy: Cliffhanger! Ooooooh!

Imi: Flashbacks and other goings on next chapter! Review or we will hunt you down…

Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3: Takumi

Lizy: Um… woah… jeez, this was longer than expected.

Imi: Lizy kinda had a writing explosion I think.

Lizy: Hypocrite, you did too! Three whole pages!

Imi: You did five…

Lizy: … shut up.

Takumi with the disclaimer!

Takumi: Naruto does not belong to Imi or Lizy. Apart from me, Alaida, Naida, scarf and shichibi, it's all Kishimoto-sama's. Thank you.

* * *

Chapter 3

_Takumi_

Takumi felt the depression sink in even further. Now the Scarf was revealed, who knew what the reaction would be!? They may try and destroy Scarf, which would be disastrous not only for the Scarf… but for Alaida.

_I mean she's been used to that Scarf for so long, who knows what would happen if she took it off for too long! _Takumi thought, with a worried expression on his face. Alaida had only been able to take Scarf-y off for about 10 minutes, without feeling faint or sick, and putting him back on. Well, at least she could bathe and have alone time, if it was only 10 minutes.

Then there was Naida. Naida. The host of a vicious demon that once threatened to destroy Solaris. Solaris. God he missed their home. Home? What home?

While contemplating, Takumi realized that people had been asking him questions, and Alaida had already begun staring into his face, poking his forehead.

"Takumi-kun, Takumi-kun, Takumi-kun, TAKUMI-CHAAAAAAN!" Alaida whined. Takumi considered various cruel genjutsus to put her in, but decided against it.

He'd get pay back later.

"WHAT?" Takumi said irritably, pushing Alaida roughly out the way.

"You went all…" she made wiggly hand gestures, helped by scarf, were performed in front of her eyes. Takumi frowned, a throbbing vein clearly visible.

"So, anyway," Kakashi interrupted before any fight could break out. "What do we do with said, demon?" At the same time Naruto, Alaida, Scarf-y and Naida looked up with huge saucer eyes, looking pleadingly up at the tall Jounin. The Hokage smiled at the scene.

"Well, I think I'll ask questions first…" Hokage began before being rudely interrupted by none other than…

"I deserve a fair trial!" Scarf-y piped up. "I have my rights! I could recite then to you, but it would take so long your little mortal lives would have extinguished by the time I read them all out." Scarf-y delivered what seemed to be a sly grin. "But I'm sure that among them is something like I should be allowed freedo-"

"Speak one more word minion and I'll have my talons ripping the very fabric of your being apart…" Snarled Naida, in a very uncharacteristic voice. Naida immediately clamped her hands to her mouth, obviously struggling with some inner battle.

"You little bitch, I'll have you know my master is a thousand times stronger than you and he'll kick your ass-"

"Oh then where is he?" Naida screeched a terrible cackle, though her eyes were wide, pleading with the onlookers to not listen.

"You wait, seven tails… when we get out…" Suddenly the wrath of the Shichibi was unlocked and she screeched some terrible language, understandable to those with demon ears and tongues. Alaida's eyes glowed for a moment then faded.

"Hey control Shi Naida! I may go all… Demon Hunter on you!" Alaida said, again with weird and unnecessary hand gestures.

"I can't help it! And besides you haven't gone Demon Hunter," she mock imitated Alaida's hand gestures, "on us yet!" _Although her father is very strange in that mode, _she noted slightly worried.

Naruto felt like his brain would implode. So. Much. Information!

But, this was another Jinchuuriki, just like him! Of the seven tails? Did she experience the same torments as him as a child? Was she hated in her home village, like he was? It didn't seem like it, but then again, we all wear masks…

"Wait, Naida!" He suddenly burst out, he could help himself, he stretched out a hand. "I'm Naruto, local jinchuuriki of Konoha!" He could see Naida's eyes widen happily, and Alaida jumped up squeaking with delight.

"Ohmigosh! What sealing technique did you use! Which planet? What star constellation?! OMIGOSH! How many seals!? And WHO is the cool person to seal you?!" Alaida grinned manically. Everyone, save Naida, Alaida and Takumi flinched. Scarf-y drooped.

"That can only mean… the rumors were true…" He muttered mournfully.

"Nani?" Questioned Alaida curiously.

"Alaida, the last of the Nine High Demons to be near Konoha was… was…"

"The most powerful of us all…" whispered Naida, in the same strange voice, her face as puzzled as Alaida.

"Kyuubi-sama what happened?!" Whimpered Scarf-y, visibly shrinking. "Wait… that means…" Scarf swung round, spinning Alaida awkwardly on her feet, Naida turned also. Scarf-y grinned as menacingly as possible in his condition, even the Shichibi smirked a little. "So… the forth hokage… he must've…"

"Yes," snapped the current Hokage. "Yes, the forth sealed away the Kyuubi, and…" she sighed sadly.

"Died?" Scarf-y's smile widened. "Serves him…" Alaida beat him with an odd looking kunai from her bag.

"Please forgive him, he's only a demon after all!" Alaida said embarrassed. Then Alaida's face turned to shock as she was obviously getting a barrage of insults mentally from the scarf. Takumi chuckled.

"Naruto-kun," Naida smiled. "So, you have the Nine Tails?" Naruto nodded. But a question plagued him.

"Naida-chan!" He grinned, finding an ally. "Have you ever released… a tail?"

Naida blinked.

Followed by Alaida, Takumi and, in his own odd way, Scarf-y.

Kakashi watched with interest, accompanied by the Godaime hokage.

"Released a tail? What do you mean?" Naida asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Well you see me and ero-sennin have kinda ranked the power of the Kyuubi with the amount of tails that come out in the chakra aura and so far I've got to the first tail only but that's loads of power so I waswonderinghowfaryouhadgot!" he explained.

Takumi briefly wondered how he had said all that in one sentence without either taking a breath or fainting.

Naida pondered this. "Well I usually don't notice when I use the shichibi chakra when I'm mad… coz everything goes all funny." she looked to Alaida and Takumi. "Did you guys ever see any chakra tails?" she asked.

Alaida looked thoughtful, and Takumi frowned. Scarf-y spoke up first.

"Well the last time you were really all that angry was when they guy in the cloak attacked us. Then I saw you with about… three tails? After he took down Takumi that is- eep!" he shrank as Naruto grabbed hold of him.

"Did you just say guys in cloaks? Did they have red clouds on them?" he asked rapidly, not noticing that Alaida looked uncomfortable. "Did you get their names? What did they look like?"

"Naruto! Let go!" ordered Tsunade. "Can't you see that you're hurting the girl!?"

Naruto looked back at the girl, who seemed to be struggling to breathe, and immediately let go. "Uh, sorry." he said sheepishly.

"S'alright" breathed Alaida. Tsunade was watching with interest.

"Symbiotic relationship?" she questioned, causing Naruto to look at her, confused, and Alaida to nod weakly.

"What's a sim-bai-ot-ick relationship?" Naruto asked. Tsunade rolled her eyes.

" A symbiotic relationship; a relationship between two living things that live together for the benefit of both." Tsunade explained. "The demon, I presume, has been sealed into the scarf and now shares a symbiotic relationship with Alaida. Am I right?" there were nods from all three of the Solarians. "So one cannot survive without the other. I'm guessing the Alaida gives the demon chakra and food and mobility, while the scarf gives Alaida protection." more nods were given and the Godaime smirked. _Oh yeh, I'm good._ she thought smugly.

Scarf-y was sulking. "It's not all that beneficial to me. I'd be much happier dead actually." it muttered. Alaida glared at it, stabbing it once more with what appeared to be a blunt kunai, strangely enough. She was about to give what would no doubt be an insulting reply, when Takumi put his hand up to stop her.

"We're digressing here. Naruto asked up about those people in cloaks." he looked seriously at the hokage and the Jounin. "Let's trade info. You tell us what you know, we'll tell you what we know. Deal?" The hokage nodded.

"It went like this…"

((A/N Don't you just adore flashbacks? D ))

"FASTER!" Alaida screamed back to Naida and Takumi, who were struggling to keep up with her speed while jumping from branch to branch. Takumi suddenly stopped, his eyes widening before sending a kunai flying passed Alaida's face, barely missing her hair. "THIS IS NO TIME TO BE COMPLAINING ABOUT MY MESSY…" Alaida sensed a presence behind her and leapt down from the branches, running back the way she came, hoping to catch up with Takumi and Naida.

Takumi was pulling an injured Naida through the foliage, hoping against hope to lose their pursuers. Now Alaida was somewhere else, and he hoped they wouldn't follow her. Naida's arm had began to bleed again, the pitiful bandage barely holding up.

"Hold on Naida!" He whispered, trying to sort out the surroundings and figure out any type of plans. Naida's eyes were glazed over, whatever had happened in those few seconds had weakened her considerably. _What did that guy do Naida, _he willed her to wake up and tell him what to do, but it was hopeless.

He suddenly came to a clearing and paused to catch his breath. He tried to shake Naida to her senses.

"Wake up Naida! Wake up!" He cried, feeling heat prick the back of his throat he resisted the urge to let the tears slip out. He held her looking around, for any type of escape. But he was just surrounded by trees upon trees.

"TAKUMI!" Alaida yelled, running fast out of the forest and screeching to a halt just behind him. "They're after Naida!" Her eyes filled with worry over Naida's sorry state. "She isn't awake yet?" Alaida said, putting Naida on the ground, shaking her slightly before using Rokugan.

"'Laida that's dangerous! What if they suddenly appear!" Scarf-y protested. "You won't be able…"

"If that happens be my eyes and ears!" She said angrily. She searched for the effect that was placed on Naida but found none. "…nani?" She muttered, trying to find a reason.

"You won't find it." Scarf-y said quite clearly. "It's the effect of a form of Sharingan, a blood limit of the clan Uchiha. So it seems the rumors that the clan fell are true. He appears to be one of the last. They were a dangerous breed, them Uchihas…" He seemed focused off into the past until Takumi grabbed him.

"How do we undo it?" he yelled, his voice echoing over the forest. Alaida and Scarf-y flinched.

"You don't." Someone said simply. Alaida screamed at the top of her lungs, scaring dozens of birds out of the treetops. Uchiha Itachi was standing right behind Takumi.

"Close your eyes!" Yelled Scarf-y, suddenly escaping Alaida's head and tightening like a blindfold around her eyes.

"But I can't fight like this!" Alaida complained, holding her hands out in front of her.

"Don't worry, I'll teach you a trick! Push all your chakra into your nerves!" Scarf-y ordered. Obliging, Alaida did so now she felt her sense heighten, she could feel the vibrations of the air and ground and knew someone was coming up behind her… very tall… with a big weapon. "Use Rokugan." He ordered, and again she obeyed. Now she knew her enemy was a sword fighter. She grinned. She was a taijutsu expert after all!

She turned to face her enemy and entered her fighting stance, her back to Naida.

Takumi meanwhile was keeping his eyes firmly shut. He also turned his back to Naida, readying his stance. He prepared his jitsu.

"Ready?" He whispered to Alaida, who gulped and nodded.

"As ready as I'll ever be…although I wish I'd had some sleep before hand…" Takumi grinned. _Even at this time, _he sighed with amusement, and returned to his fighting stance.

"GO!"

"No… no…no…"

"**Chick?"**

"Please… come back…"

"**Ne, Chick?"**

"Come back… please…please…"

"**Come on Chick, you can fight this. It's not real!"**

"N… not real…"

"**Yes, not real, now come on, wake up and fight."**

"Not real, not real, not real… come back… please…"

"**Hey, are you listening to me?"**

"Not real…don't leave me alone…not real…"

"**Chick."**

"Not real…"

"**Chick."**

"No…"

"**Chick!"**

"Not a monster…"

"**NAIDA!"**

"WHAT?! What do you want?!"

"**Will you get a _grip_?!"**

"I have a perfectly good grip, THANKYOU!!"

"**Then WHY, may I ask, are your friends getting their asses handed to them and you're sitting moping about what cannot be changed?!"**

"… I don't have friends…"

"…**I do not believe this. Come here. Give me control before we all die."**

"… why should I?"

"**Oh kami give me strength. Look, your friends are fighting out there, protecting you. I refuse to let my container sit around and do nothing while everyone else gets all the action, for one thing, it would make me look weak, and for another thing, that would make you a very lousy friend. Now give me the controls or else I'll bug you about that crush you have for the rest of your pitiful life."**

Meanwhile…

_Kuso, this isn't as easy as I thought…_ Alaida thought, hastily dodging a sweep of the sharky-dude's huge sword. Last time she had even touched that thing it felt like she was going to faint. Rolling to the side to dodge as crushing blow that made a small crater in the rocky ground, Alaida wiped the sweat from her eyes and jumped into the tree nearby tree. _Must plan, what would be a weakness, it's not his sword, that's for sure, or his speed…_she smirked as a plan slowly took shape in her mind. Poking scarf-y with her blunt weapon, the cunai. The scarf glared at her. _Here's what we do Scarf-y…_ she thought with an evil smirk.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Kisame was chuckling slightly. This girl was proving to be great entertainment! Finally an opponent that wasn't a complete idiot, trying to run straight at his sword! It had been about… 2 months? A slight rustle, from a topmost tree, made Kisame smirk, bearing his sharp teeth. Suddenly, the rustle moved, to behind him. Kisame frowned. A visitor? Or had his partner already gotten bored? Quite suddenly, the world went tartan. Shaking his head to try and rid himself of the simple piece of cloth over his face, he was surprised when it got even tighter, beginning to hurt! Growling low at such a stupid trick, he reached up to grab it when he felt a very hard kick in a rather important place. Doubling over, he growled even more, lower, angrier. While in his low position, there was another kick to his jaw that snapped his head to the side. With lightning speed, he grabbed the offending ankle, swinging the person attached around his head, hearing a satisfying thud when he let go, sending the person crashing into a tree. The world righted itself again, the blinding tartan removed.

Meanwhile…

Takumi, hiding behind a rather large boulder created by an intense rock jutsu, considered his options. Genjutsu was not an option, as he had found, as what appeared to be the man's (or surely he was a boy, he looked no more than 17) keikki genkai, bloodline limit, was deflecting and diffusing all of his Genjutsu. Swearing softly as the quiet footfalls came ever closer, he pondered briefly how Alaida was doing. Probably as bad as he was, judging by the sadistic laughter coming from her direction. Gripping his kunai hard, he prepared to jump. Taking a deep breath, he rolled out… to see nothing. Frowning, mismatched eyes scanning for the enemy that was no doubt hiding, waiting to attack. He shivered at the odd sense of déjà vu. A shifting of fabric alerted him of danger too late, as a sharp pain spread from his back down his spine.

The world blacked out.

Shichibi wove herself around the nerves, muscles and skin of Naida, filling her essence and energy throughout the girl. She had almost complete control of the body, but not enough yet. Through Naida's half closed dulled eyes she could see Takumi and Alaida perfectly, as she was at an angle.

She made a note to curse the demon scarf for allowing Alaida to perform such dirty tricks, she knew they'd come back to haunt that girl. She had certainly broken a few ribs and this wasn't being helped by her opponent. He threw her against the surrounding trees several times before punching her repeatedly in the stomach. Alaida dropped limply to the floor, but then suddenly was gone. Alaida's speed had saved her again as she'd disappeared. The shark-like man blinked for a moment before growling a very sinister laugh.

"Run, run, run, as fast as you can…" a wicked smile marred his already strange face and he entered the forest.

However, Takumi was in a sorry state. He wasn't moving, except for the occasional twitch. This lasted a few moments before he fell to his knees, shivering and letting tears roll down his face. His eyes were glazed over and he seemed to be utterly confused about his surroundings.

Shichibi's anger was growing, spreading her power throughout Naida's limp body. **_Hold on there Chick and friends of Chick. I promise I won't disappoint._** She thought, already twisting chakra in Naida's hands. Now she needed control of the bottom part of her legs.

Suddenly out of the trees limped Alaida, blood trickling from the edges of her mouth. Takumi looked at her vaguely but continued to quiver uncontrollably. Alaida's face fell and she collapsed to her knees next to Naida, kunai still in hand.

"Damn it, Naida I know your lazy but… wake up please…" She kept that resilient smile on her face, but it was cracking.

The sharingan user smirked and a moment later after a twig snapped, Alaida was grabbed by the scruff of her hood and thrown against another nearby tree. Her face fell, this was the first time she'd ever seen tears from Alaida.

Takumi seemed to have regained part of his usual composure and started at the shark-man with a kunai. But with lightning speed, the sharingan user had used his own kunai against him, turning it into his stomach.

"TAKUMI!" Alaida screamed as he clutched at the wound, flinching when he saw the pair head towards Naida, Itachi dragging him along, the kunai still impaled in his stomach.

"You will now have the pleasure of watching your friend here, be taken from you," the shark-man grinned, revealing his razor-sharp teeth. Although Alaida and Takumi tried to move their bodies had been so badly broken they just had no energy to help.

However, it was not they who would save Naida…

Itachi felt an odd kind of satisfaction when he felt that pulse of obvious killing intent. Was it disturbing that he was so used to demonic chakra?

Probably.

Twisting the kunai even further into the boy's stomach, drawing another strangled gasp of pain from behind gritted teeth, he could feel the heat of the chakra on his back. In contrast, the voice emitting from the demon-hostess would have sent chills down any normal man's spine.

"…**_you…bastard…_"** it said dangerously. Itachi turned slightly. He didn't really need to in order to guess what was behind him.

Sure enough, a great fiery bird of prey was rising high above him, the girl still visible inside the whiling mass of demonic chakra. Wings that stretched out 20 feet each way, claws that had ripped though the bodies of many, a beak the colour of the blood it feasted on.

So this was the infamous Shichibi no Tori.

Nice.

Alaida watched in abject horror and amazement as her best friend transformed into the form of a monstrous bird. Sure, she had heard the Shichibi's voice speak though Naida, and even seen old wooden carvings of it, but she hadn't ever seen it manifest, at least up this close. She vaguely remembered a red mass in the sky as the islands were saved from destruction that one time.

She paused to briefly wonder just why this man wanted to provoke Naida into such a state.

Takumi's eyes widened slightly, his mouth opening in horror. It had finally happened, the one thing he had to prevent at all costs had occurred, and he was in no position to stop it. Takumi's training gave him complete control over demons, but only when he had enough chakra. However, he didn't think he even had enough left… to live.

Itachi's eyes glinted as his victim's eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body became limp. He dropped the lifeless body onto the ground and turned to face the Shichibi. Although this was not technically his assigned demon, he felt a small satisfaction in beating the other members to the job.

Alaida felt very queasy and started to sway as she stood up, leaning on a tree for support. _Damn trees, _she thought miserably as she thought of how many times she'd been thrown against them. _I guess I can forgive you now, _she winced as she felt her ribs crack. Great. Broken. She moaned angrily, but as she saw Takumi she felt her heart lurch. _Dead? _She whimpered as her ankle also throbbed. It wasn't broken but it as sure as hell hurt. _Bloody stupid shark-dude, _she thought angrily glaring at him.

She wobbled a little but found her footing. Realising that Shichibi was providing a distraction, she sorted out her priorities. First she had to get Takumi away and to a safe destination. Secondly she had to devise a plan to get her and Naida… or Shichibi out of there. She knew even Shichibi had limits in Naida's body and they couldn't defeat these guys.

It occurred to Alaida that these were some type of demon hunters, but totally different from her and her family. She would never be this brutal… would she? But there was no time to ponder this, as Itachi and Kisame or _shark-dude _as he was known, were distracted, avoiding Shichibi's blasts of fire. Alaida ran for it skidding to a halt on her knees, and holding Takumi's head in her lap. Using the technique Naida taught her, she scanned the wound with a medical jitsu, though she was unable to heal. She saw that the stab had missed a major artery near the stomach. She couldn't believe Takumi's luck, the wound wasn't too serious. But he would need to be healed soon.

Takumi's eyes suddenly opened and he coughed out blood, shaking and clinging to Alaida's jacket. Alaida soothed him between sounds of explosions and squawks. Takumi looked through Alaida to towards Naida and attempted to get up. Alaida held him down.

"No!" She said in earnest. "You have to stay still, I'll get you out and then get Naida too!" She smiled reassuringly, but Takumi was desperately trying to say something to her. Alaida felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and she jumped just in time, Takumi in her arms.

"Lucky," Kisame grinned, drawing his sword back up, leaving behind a dent in the dry earth. Alaida froze, panicked for once by the lack of a plan. Takumi usually knew what to do, but he could barely speak. "Sorry, can't have you wandering off to Konoha now can we?" Alaida and Takumi's eyes widened, did they know their plans all along? "Looks like you have more stamina then I thought, little one," Alaida frowned, she may be a little short for her age, but a growth spurt was definitely round the corner… "So, to stop you running off, I'll just break your legs." He grinned. Takumi looked at Alaida, noting the determination in her face. Breaking Alaida's legs meant you took away her great joy of running, that was not about to happen.

"Scarf-y," she said seriously, straining her muscles to her fighting position.

"Madam?" Was all the sarcasm a weakened Scarf-y could manage.

"Full blown attack." Her eyes narrowed and Scarf-y wrapped itself quickly around Takumi, sending a message. He nodded and Alaida smiled.

"Catch me if you can!" She grinned and vanished only a flurry of leaves betraying her path through the forest. Kisame sighed and smiled deviously.

"Guess I can leave you here huh?" He said to Takumi who made an effort to get up but failed. Kisame smiled, and at similar speeds to Alaida disappeared into the forest. Takumi flinched, he hoped Alaida knew he was that fast. Takumi pulled himself up, steadying himself. God he was a good actor.

He began his jitsu, glancing up occasionally to Naida, who seemed to be having troubles of her own…

Shichibi retreated from the continuous barrage of attacks and rested in the air. _So strong, _she thought bitterly. She felt herself slowly lose control over the body. First the fingers, the toes… it was becoming very difficult to manoeuvre, and if they hit the ground, there'd be trouble.

She lashed out with a fiery claw at Itachi who easily dodged it and managed to get his kunai to hit Naida's leg. Shichibi screamed at Naida to wake up, realising she hadn't enough strength to fight and stay airborne.

Alaida just kept running. Running. Running. Running. Until she came to a lake when she stopped awkwardly, clutching her ribs. Her ribs weren't the problem. The water was. Alaida had never been able to walk on water using chakra control. Takumi and Naida managed easily, but she had always been useless. She could go a little way with her feet half in but then she'd sink. But she had to get away from the water, as she suspected the shark-dude was a water chakra user. She carefully took the first steps but started to sink, she then began to run. She could feel the shark-dudes chakra and she was panicking. Suddenly she lost her tiny amount of grip on the water completely and she fell into the water with a splash, not too far from the other side of the lake. As she reached the other side of the lake and placed her hand on the bank, she was suddenly pushed under. She fought back against the force and gulped in some air, before being pushing under again. Kisame sighed.

"Too bad, midget." He pulled her from the water and she gratefully gulped in the welcome air. "Sorry, like I said," he grabbed her thigh and she suddenly realised he was making good on his earlier promise. If her thigh bone was broken she'd have no chance… of escaping or running again period. She felt him crushing it and she struggled, screaming helplessly to anyone. Then, Scarf-y wrapped himself round Kisame's neck and squeezed. Kisame cursed furiously and let Alaida's leg go. She fell to the ground, in tears, bruised and battered. Scarf-y struggled with his opponent but remained in the advantage.

"Alaida," he growled and she looked up, wide eyed. "What's the longest time we've been away?" Alaida shut her eyes for a moment in concentration.

"Urm… when I went to the hot springs… about twelve minutes…" Alaida said, her eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Go," he growled, in a more dangerous voice.

"WHAT!?" Alaida said, her eyes wider than ever. "But what if…?" Scarf-y pulled tighter round her own neck.

"Go, I'll find you, you have twelve minutes to get them out of there!" He yelled. Alaida didn't need telling twice and she pulled the scarf off her neck and ran, feeling an odd sense of loneliness as she ran back to Takumi and Naida.

Takumi finished the seals. The strange black inky lines appearing on the ground in front of him, whirled around his feet and grew outwards. Now he had to wait for Alaida…

Shichibi felt the last power slip from her grasp and her host's body fell. Shichibi cursed, trying to gain control, but she felt a strange resistance. _Chick? _She was so shocked to feel her own host's presence regaining control.

Naida made an abrupt stop before hitting the ground, keeping her feet an inch off the floor. She readied her kunai, silently thanking Shichibi, Takumi and Alaida.

"Right, demon hunter," she growled, much like her demon within. "This time its personal." She ran at him flinging kunai and shuriken, before performing a fire jitsu. All of which he countered. _Heh, I'm just buying time mister, _she thought to herself smiling.

Alaida crouched on the tree branch, trying to perform her seals. She hated seals. She just never got them, but today was an exception.

Naida, suddenly leaped back from her onslaught, straight into Takumi's path. Takumi sent forth his dark seals, they imprisoned Naida's chakra.

The last seal, the Rooster, released the only jutsu she had ever truly used and a hurricane gale erupted from the forest, hitting the only slightly surprised ninja.

Naida flinched in horror at her inability to move, turning to see Takumi, at his face she slightly smiled before she fainted into his arms.

Alaida ran for it, Takumi ran before her into the direction they needed to go. Alaida could briefly see, as she caught up with Takumi and Naida that Naida was covered in the black ancient writing of their homeland. Her chakra was sealed, for a while at least. She noticed that Takumi had bandaged himself

Takumi's eyebrow's raised as he noticed Alaida's lack of a scarf. How long did she have before…? He rid himself of those horrible thoughts as they just kept running.

Itachi stood up, lightly brushing himself off. He was slightly annoyed that Kisame hadn't _dealt _with the boy and girl. Now he could no longer sense the Shichibi as that boy had used some sort of sealing technique. Even the girl and boy weren't detectable as they had so little chakra.

Kisame suddenly emerged from the trees. Looking very irritable.

"Damn Scarf," he cursed for a while before looking at Itachi.

"You failed to kill them, I see." Itachi said, more of a statement than a question. Kisame sweat dropped.

"Damn kid, how was I meant to know she had a demon scarf? Hachibi minion nonetheless," he said rubbing his neck.

"You should have killed them rather than playing," Itachi said dangerously. He sighed and walked on. "We know where they're going, Konoha. No problem, they'll think they're safe there… besides, we need that Kyuubi." Kisame nodded.

Alaida felt her systems shutting down and kept stumbling on twigs and roots of trees. She suddenly stopped, breathing heavily.

"Takumi… please… can we wait for Scarf-y…" she pleaded. Takumi was torn. He had to get away from those terrible hunters, but it had been fifteen minutes and this was too much. He put Naida down, putting her back against the tree.

"Yeh sure!" He said, as cheerfully as possible, still not making it as true as Naida and Alaida. He was very pessimistic. Already he had decided that if Alaida lost consciousness he had to move on. There was no promise that those demon hunters couldn't feel their chakra. He just hoped Scarf-y came quickly.

A rustling came from the path they had come from. Takumi stood up, wincing at the pain. He prepared himself. He readied his kunai. Suddenly a flash of tartan escaped the greenery and wrapped itself around Alaida's neck. Panting, even though it didn't need to.

"Am I late?" Scarf-y said cheerfully.

Naruto gawped at them.

"You… SURVIVED ITACHI AND KISAME!? TOGETHER?! AT ONCE?!" he stood up just out of pure surprise. Even Kakashi looked gob smacked, and for some reason Naida couldn't quite figure out, a tad envious.

To his credit, his voice was as calm as ever when he spoke. "This is interesting information." he said. The Hokage nodded. "It will be added to our database of recent Akatsuki activities." he turned to the three visiting ninja, is eye curved up in that odd smile. "How about we finish up our tour, which was so rudely interrupted?"

Later on, as they were walking though the streets, Naruto suddenly sped off. Hurrying after him the Solaris Team ended up finding him with a girl. One with rather oddly coloured hair. It was pink. Naruto looked up and realised he had left the others in his dust thanks to his surprise run off.

"Eheheheh, sorry guys!" he apologised embarrassedly. The pink haired girl was looking them all over, apparently assessing them. Or looking for a hitai-ate. She wouldn't find one though, as The Solaris Islands had so few ninjas, and the five they did have were so well known, they didn't need identification. Naruto noticed the looks exchanged and laughed. "Ah, this is Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan, this is Takumi, Alaida and Naida!" he gestured to each person respectively as he said the names. Sakura smiled at them.

"Nice to meet you! Where are you from?" she asked politely. Alaida raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"How did you know we're not from around here?" she asked. Takumi rolled his eyes.

"We don't wear hitai-ate, stupid." he said exasperatedly.

Naida sighed at her friends. "We're from the Solaris Islands. You won't have heard of them, they're pretty far away…"

Sakura looked surprised. "Actually, I have heard of them!" the other four stared at her, waiting for some kind of explanation. "Well, you know, it can get a little boring when Tsunade-sama goes out gambling and there's nothing to do…" she blushed slightly.

Naruto blinked. "Well… okay then…hey, weren't you just talking to me about going to that meeting thing with Kurenai? The genjutsu thing…" he trailed off, looking thoughtful.

Sakura looked at him for a couple of seconds before pure terror and panic took over her features. "AHHH! NARUTO WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?!" she yelled at him before rushing off.

Team Solaris were left to wonder just how she could run so fast in high heels.

Naruto sweat-dropped. "…moving on!"

"Genjutsu meeting…hmm?" Takumi said thoughtfully, watching the dust cloud head into the distance. "Do you mind if I went?" He asked Naruto. Naruto frowned.

"I dunno, I remember being told something about village secrets and stuff… but who really cares!" Takumi grinned and walked off in the direction of the dust cloud.

"Don't get into trouble you two," he warned as he walked off, Naida looked a tad worried but remained composed. She was used to dealing with children. Even if they were older than her…

Alaida sighed and put her arms behind her head.

"I'm bored, can't we go do something?" Alaida moaned.

"Hey that's a good idea why don't we do some training!" Naida said enthusiastically, as Alaida and Naruto sweat dropped.

"But that means WORK!" Alaida whined and crossed her arms rebelliously. Naida rolled her eyes.

"You can prove you're the fastest ninja in the world by fighting them if you want…" She tempted. Alaida twitched but didn't budge. "Oh, I guess the taijutsu specialists here are a bit too strong for you though-"

"Ok! I'll do it! And prove I'm number one!" Alaida interrupted grinning wildly. She grabbed Naruto's arm and sped off at full speed.

"A-lai-da…wro-ng… wa-ay!" Naruto managed, and Alaida briefly halted, doubled back and turned left towards the training grounds, leaving poor Naida in her dust.

Naida hovered after her speedy friend. Alaida never could resist a challenge. From what she had heard, this village was apparently the most infamous for turning out genius ninja. It tended to skip generations though. Apparently this was the best generation they'd had in ten years. Naida wasn't so interested in the battling, though that would be rather fun, but more interested in the prospect of learning more about the culture. This was, after all, a diplomatic mission. Though Takumi treated it as his funeral, and Alaida as her paid vacation. Finally finding the source of Alaida's chakra, she came out into a clearing. She was soon blinded by a green that didn't match the colour of the trees. It was also moving. And Naruto was taking to it. Focusing her eyes on it, she realised it was, in fact, a person, with what appeared to be two caterpillars firmly attached to its forehead.

Naida then realised those were his eyebrows.

Deciding not to be antisocial, she made it appear as though she were walking in order not to freak out the person, and went to say hello.

"Psst, Naruto-kun," Alaida whispered. "Are those REALLY his eyebrows?" She looked generally confused as well as impressed.

"Yesss…" Naruto sighed, then smiled. "I _think…"_ Alaida blinked.

"Hey, fuzzy-eyebrows, this is Alaida, she's from some far off island." He pointed at Alaida who grinned, and bowed slightly. "Alaida, this is Rock Lee, also known as fuzzy-eyebrows," he added at the end. Lee held out a hand and smiled.

"Nice to meet you!" Alaida smiled too and slapped his hand in a high five style. Naruto and Lee blinked. Naida sighed. Alaida, even though it was custom on their island too, never got the idea very well. After a pause conversation began again.

"These are pretty cool training grounds," Naida said in awe, they didn't really have training grounds at home. Alaida had stars in her eyes.

"Wow… look! LOOK! All the equipment… the routines… so… amazing!" She was clearly star struck and Naida looked embarrassed. "Lets do some training! I'll take you on again Naruto!" Naruto winced at painful memories and declined. Alaida sighed.

"Why don't you train with me and my sensei?" Lee asked enthusiastically. Alaida grinned.

"Really? Is your sensei good?!" Lee looked even more star struck than Alaida.

"Yes! He is one of the greatest, most youthful jounins in Konoha!" Alaida grinned.

"Really! This will be AWESOME!" She jumped up and down. "Oh can I go and train! Oh PLEASE!" Naida tensed. This was the first time Alaida was willingly training without going off to do something stupid. But this guy was so alien that she was a little worried over the influence he might have on her. But, it may be the last time Alaida would get a chance to learn some good techniques… not to mention actually train rather than mess around.

Naida shrugged._ Oh… why not! They couldn't be that bad!_

It is at this point in the story the authoress must remind the reader to never EVER say that.

About five minuets later, Naida faced the consequences of tempting fate.

There, standing before her, was a man. In green spandex. And a flax jacket. Just like the boy… only…

Taller. And louder.

Naida's alarm bells went off.

Run! They screamed at her. Run FAR AWAY!

Naida then pondered for a moment if her sanity was deteriorating, as she was beginning to hear voices in her head other than the Shichibi.

"YOSH LEE!" cried the taller version of the boy. "YOU HAVE FOUND TWO YOUTHFULL FLOWERS TO COME TRAIN WITH US!" Naida twitched slightly at the two's apparent obsession with the word 'youth'. Alaida seemed to be staring with awe up at the man, who was at least a head taller than her.

"HAI GAI-SENSEI!" Lee shouted, standing to attention like a soldier. "WE SHALL TRAIN FOR TWELVE HOURS! AND IF WE CAN'T DO THAT, WE SHALL RUN LAPS AROUND KONOHA ON OUR HANDS! AND IF WE CANNOT DO THAT, WE SHALL SCALE THE HOKAGE MONUMENT IN THE SPAN OF HALF AN HOUR, WITH ONLY KUNAI!" Lee ranted. Naida very slowly backed away. Maybe listening to those little voices was a good idea… The other man's eyes seemed to be tearing up and Alaida appeared mesmerized. Naida wondered how she didn't go deaf, standing so close to the shouting, spandex clad men.

The man really appeared to be crying. "Lee…" he said tearfully.

"Gai-sensei!" the younger one replied, also tearing up. Naida backed away further, and if this was an anime, there would have been a sweat drop the size of an egg steadily making it's way down her head.

"LEE!" The man cried again, throwing his arms out wide.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee yelled, giving his sensei a rather over-dramatic hug.

"LEE!" Naida, for some inexplicable reason, could have sworn her surroundings changed to a sunset cliff, the sea sparkling dramatically.

"GAI-SENSEI!" A large wave crashed upon some random rocks, filling the air with sparkling water.

"LEE!" And so it continued.

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"NAIDA!"

"ALAIDA!" cried Naida, seeing her friend too had her arms out, with tears streaming sown her face. Alaida stopped crying her fake tears and pouted.

"All the cool kids were doing it…" she said sulkily.

Naida crossed her arms. "I am not hugging you." She turned to the two crying men. "Uh, weren't you supposed to be training?" she inquired.

The men stopped crying, and looked at each other. They then jumped up laughing, a kind of creepy laugh really. For any normal person it would probably been the kind of forced laugher you hear, but it seemed like these two would just _have_ a laugh like that anyway.

"Ah, the red head burns with the passion of YOUTH!" Gai cried. Naida resisted the urge to face palm. "I'm sure you are eager to train!"

Naida blinked and shook her head. "Nuh-uh." she said simply. "I can't use taijutsu. It's my friend Alaida who wants to train… for once." she added with a glare. Lee appeared to be staring at her in… pity? Gai, however, was staring in horror.

"Can't use… taijutsu?" he said incredulously. "But… even an academy student can do a _little_ taijutsu. You mean you just don't want to do it!" Naida shook her head and lifted her long leg warmers that were disguising her levitation.

"I can't touch the floor." she said simply.

Lee stared at the faint red-ish glow around Naida's feet, but Gai's huge eyebrows had creased into a frown. Alaida was completely non-pulsed, too used to the levitation to even care.

"I see." Gai said quietly. "You're just like…" he noticed Lee looking at him oddly and suddenly laughed with bravado. "Oh well! I'm sure we can incorporate your friend into our training!" he cried happily. Lee nodded enthusiastically and Alaida squealed in glee.

"Ooooooh! OOOOOH!" she cried happily. "Can we have a sparring match first? Please? Pleeeeeease!" she whined, completely prepared to use the chibi inu no gan no jutsu (( A/N puppy eyes technique! )) if the need arose. Fortunately, it didn't, as Lee jumped with an enthusiastic cry, and ran to the centre of the clearing. Alaida followed him, standing opposite him, grinning madly. Naida rolled her eyes and smiled at her friend. She was going to be all cocky again, she could tell. Poor Lee, the kid probably had no idea what was coming to him…

Naida sighed and smiled weakly as she carried along through the training grounds. Naruto kept glancing back towards Alaida and Lee, now concealed by some trees, obviously understanding Lee's peril… or Alaida's? Who could tell.

"So…Naruto-kun" Naida began awkwardly. "Any cool ninjutsu that Konoha uses, that you can show?" Naruto's face lit up and then fell slightly as he seemed to be contemplating what to do.

"Well, we're not really meant to show ninja's from outside villages techniques…" He said, obviously disappointed he couldn't show off some hidden skills he had learned. Naida shrugged and smiled cheerfully.

"Wellll… technically I'm not from a _village _as such! We trained all around our country… though it is pretty small… but only Takumi came from a village as such but I don't know much about where he lived." Naruto's eyes brightened.

"Then…!"

"Go on! Whose gonna know?!" Naida grinned. They both stopped, Naida analysing his every move. Naruto took up position, performed a hand seal…

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" he cried, causing three copies of himself to poof into existence beside him. Naida blinked at them.

"Ah…bunshin?" she questioned, clearly confused. "Um.. Can't everyone do that? That's a very basic skill…" she trailed off as Naruto shook his head, grinning widely at her.

"Nope! These aren't ordinary bunshin! These are _kage_ bunshin." his clones nodded. Naida hovered over to one. The clone blinked at her. She poked it's chest, causing it to stumble backwards, disappearing into smoke. She stared at the spot where it vanished, shocked.

"That… felt solid…" she said slowly. "But it can only take a light tap to make it disappear…" she pondered this for a few moments, staring at Naruto's left over clone thoughtfully. She nodded slowly. The Narutos blinked. "It's the perfect jutsu!"

Both Narutos looked blank.

"Don't you get it!" Naida exclaimed excitedly. "This is the perfect jutsu! It can create an entirely dispensable, replaceable army!" she appeared to be awestruck and excited at the same time. She hovered slightly too high off the ground, exposing the two inches or so between her feet and the ground. "Woooow! Konoha has the coolest jutsus!" she squealed. Naruto watched her reaction, a little disturbed.

"Uh… I'd kinda never thought of that before really-" he muttered slowly before being cut off by Naida flying in his face.

"HOW! How could nobody think of this before! You could take over entire cities with this!" she burst out, waving her arms franticly. "Does everyone in this village know this jutsu or what?!"

"Uh…I think it's just me, Kakashi-sensei and a couple of ANBU…" Naruto said, backing slowly away from the girl.

"Oh?" Naida blinked. "But it would be so useful for everyone…" she trailed off.

"Yeah, but ya see, you need a load of chakra to pull it off. More chakra more clones. Most people I know can't even do one." Naruto grinned proudly at his defining trait, his huge amount of chakra, even without the Kyuubi.

Naida pulled back. "Oh." she said, looking thoughtful again. "Well that explains it. And I suppose if one had not the most stable of minds, their clones might kill them, ne?" she mumbled to herself. Then she smiled at Naruto. "Anything else that's cool that you can do? What about something flashy!" she asked.

Naruto grinned. "Right! I've got just the thing! My best, most flashy jutsu ever!" he proclaimed loudly, signalling for his clone to get ready. He held out his hand, collecting visible blue chakra in a swirling ball in his palm. Naida held her breath. The clone started putting more into the ball, it's shape changing into a more perfect ball of swirling chakra. Naruto grinned at her fascinated look. "Okay! RASENGAN!" he cried, slamming the ball into a nearby tree. Bark flew everywhere and Naida had to close her eyes. Opening them again, she gasped aloud at what she saw.

Or rather, that she didn't see.

The tree was gone.

There was nothing left there but air. A quick glance down however, revealed the remains of the upper part of the tree. From the rings, this tree was only a few years old, so it wasn't an impossible feat to get it. But it would still take quite a lot. But there wasn't even any demon chakra!

It was at this point that Naida decided she really liked Konoha.

"Huh, well what do you think, pretty cool eh?" Naruto grinned. Naida finally remembered to blink when Naruto waved his hand in front of her face. Naida's face turned suddenly very red and a wide grin threatened to split her face in two and vanish into her ears.

"OHMYGODSYOUHAVETOTELLMEHOWYOUDIDTHATTHATWASSOFREAKINGCOOL!" she suddenly squealed in a high pitched voice. She fluttered around the stump of the tree inspecting the damage. Naruto wagged a finger at her.

"No way, that's a special jutsu. It's mine, though I didn't make it." he nodded. Naida stopped her inspection and blinked up at him.

"No? I thought it was you, because both your names have basically the same meaning of spiral… and Rasengan means spiralling sphere…" she looked thoughtful. Naruto looked at her before thinking about this point as well.

"Oh yeh… funny that. Anyway, the Yondaime made it up, taught it to Ero-sennin and he taught it to me." Naruto nodded to himself. Naida's thoughtful look deepened.

"Who's Ero-Sennin?" she asked him, pacing on thin air.

"Hmm? Oh that's what I call Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin." he ginned his foxy gin at her before looking at her confused face. "You do know about them right?" he added. Naida shook her head in negative and Naruto tried to think out the best way to explain it.

"Well, they're these three really powerful ninja. Um… One's a perverted hermit, and he summons frogs and is really powerful with seals and stuff and knows all kinds of stuff. He's my teacher. He's got white hair and wears really odd clothes, usually looking all perverted and stuff. You can't miss him." he nodded slowly. Naida crossed her legs and hovered in the air where she was, about a foot off the ground. Naruto could just about see faint outlines of reddish wings behind her. She made a motion like she was pretending to take notes with a fake kind of seriousness that made Naruto grin again.

"Then there's Baa-chan, um, The Hokage, Tsunade." he continued. "She's the best medic nin on the planet. She summons slugs, from what I've heard from Sakura, who's training under her, and she has super strength. No really, I do mean super super _super_ strength. She could flick you and you'd go flying. Happened to me once." he was caught between smiling and wincing at the memory.

His face soured at the next one. "Then there's the creepy snake-bastard, Orochimaru." the name was spat out like poison, and Naida looked up from her imaginary notes, alarmed at the amount of hate in the usually cheerful boy's voice. "He's out to rule the world or some crazy shit like that. He basically wants to know all the jutsus in the world and to be immortal." then, to Naida's horror, Naruto's eyes became heart-wrenchingly sad. "He managed to poison my best friend's mind into coming to join him. All Orochimaru wants with him is to take his body so he can have his eyes." his voice returned to being angry once more and Naida tentatively asked a question.

"Um, his eyes? What's so special about them?" she asked, though she suddenly had a sinking feeling she knew what was coming.

"He has a blood limit." Naruto ground out the last two words. "The Sharingan."

While Naida herself had no idea what that meant, she heard a sudden squawk from inside her head. Her eyes clouded over slightly as she turned inwards.

'_Shichibi?_' she asked, wondering why the great phoenix was so flustered.

'**Oh that's just great! Wonderful! I thought it was a joyous day when I heard the Uchihas had been wiped out!'** the great bird ranted. '**But there are survivors with that horrific bloodline! Oh this is just wonderful.'** she sounded quite flustered, not something Naida had heard in a while.

'_Uh, Shichibi… ' _Naida asked tentatively. '_What's up with the Sharingan?'_

'**That bloodline has more cursed chakra than even my own! Among the bijuu, it is one of the few things we fear…'** and indeed the fear was evident in the Shichibi's voice. Naida shivered at the thought of anything so horrible as to frighten a demon like a bijuu. While the Shichibi was certainly one of the nicer demons she had met (and by being friends with Alaida, she had met a few) she still couldn't imagine anything scary enough to frighten her tenant.

"Yoooooooo? Naida-chaaaaaaaan?" Naida snapped back to reality when she suddenly realised Naruto was snapping his fingers in front of her face. She shook her head to clear it then smiled apologetically at the blond. "Oh good, you had me worried for a minute there, your eyes went all… silvery." he frowned at her eyes, which were once again the deep blue they usually were.

"Aa, sorry, I had a voice in my head that wouldn't shut up." she brushed it off. Naruto, however, looked even more concerned.

"Wait, so your demon talks to you? Like, without you going to see him?" he questioned curiously.

"Her actually. And yeah, she does, quite often as well." Naida failed to see where this was going, but Naruto kept looking more and more worried.

"Aren't you scared she's gonna… I dunno… poison your mind or something?" he said finally. Naida blinked at him. Then she giggled. She tried to stifle them behind her hand, but they were just getting out of control. She floated higher and higher as her laughter got the better of her. Back on the ground, Naruto blinked up at her. He was being deadly serious about this. Hadn't Gaara's demon sent him totally insane? Beside the lack of sleep of course. Finally, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, Naida came down to a level that didn't give Naruto a crick in the neck.

"Ahhh, that was good. I'm sorry Naruto, really, but that was just -snicker- funny!" she gave a little giggle once again. "Oh the serious look on your face. Yes she's tried, I'd be worried if she didn't, but travelling with the daughter of a demon hunter has it's perks." she smiled at him as he blinked confusedly. "You see, Alaida's taught me a trick. It's basically how to calm a demon down when it's sealed inside something. It's easier if you are the something it's sealed inside." she nodded in thought of how to explain it. "Well it works like trying to calm down a dog I suppose. You just need to assert your dominence really. Show them that you are the one with the upper hand and the one in charge. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and I've pretty much bastardised it because Shichibi is as stubborn as a mule, so we had to come to some compromises." she grinned again at him. "But there's no way I'd allow myself to just be polluted like that. People'd notice and hate me even more if I gave in, right?"

Naruto nodded slowly. There was a pause that was neither awkward nor inviting that stretched on for a while before a sudden scream broke the silence, coming from the place where they had left Naida and Lee.

"We should probably go and see what's left of your friend." they both said in unison before blinking at each other and starting to laugh hysterically.

"Yes, okay, but I'll bet you that the one with the big eyebrows will have lost!" Naida giggled. Naruto's face suddenly took on a very sneaky look, something which reminded Naida even more of a fox than his grin.

"Hmmm… okay then. If Bushy-brows was the one who screamed , then I'll ..um…" he tried to think of something. Naida's eyes glinted like a hawk who had spotted it's dinner.

"You have to buy me my next month's supply of tea." she said simply. "And if Alaida was the one who lost, then I'll treat you to ramen!" she declared. Both grinning, they shook hands, sure of their own victories.

Dashing through the trees to get to the clearing, Naida secretly wondered if Naruto had any idea about her amazing fetish for buying ridiculous amounts of tea.

* * *

I have a little bit of bad news. Imi, for family reasons, can no longer co-write this story with me the way she used to. However, that does not mean this story will end! It only means it will take a little longer. I have made it my personal goal to get the next chapter up by the first of every month. Seeing as the time of this edit April the first (and this is no joke, trust me.) the next update will be, if not before, 1st of May.

Thankyou! Keep reveiwing, it makes me want to write more!


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